No One Is Safe Under Military Rule… No to the Interior Ministry’s Thuggery Against Doctors

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

Another crime is added to the long black record of this repressive regime: police officers assaulted doctors at Al-Matariya Hospital while they were performing their duties. A crime as clear as day—documented in audio, video, eyewitness testimony, and in the wounds of the assaulted doctors. Yet, the Prosecutor General responded differently: “No Hatem ever stands trial.”

We knew this would happen. This judiciary prosecutes only the regime’s poorest victims and its political opponents. The military’s judiciary does not hold Hatem accountable, nor Mubarak, Tantawi, or Sisi—no matter how grave their crimes. This is a judiciary that covers murder, torture, and corruption. A judiciary that has long abandoned even the pretense of neutrality and has become a full-fledged repressive apparatus. That is why we never expected justice for the assaulted doctors of Al-Matariya. As expected, the Prosecutor General rushed—not to hold the officers accountable—but to order the reopen the hospital, which the doctors had closed after going on strike. He moved swiftly to prevent doctors from exercising their constitutional and legal right to strike but did nothing to hold the police officers accountable for their crimes. A Prosecutor General who protects criminals and criminalizes rights is, in truth, part of the same gang—an accomplice to their crimes.

As a natural reaction to this assault, the Doctors’ Syndicate stepped in to fulfill its role. The syndicate supported the strike of Al-Matariya doctors and called for a general assembly, placing the decision on how to respond to this crime and stand against repeated violations in the hands of doctors and their elected representatives. This stance requires our full support. The primary task now for the syndicate and its members is to mobilize and ensure full attendance at the general assembly, where escalatory measures—including the possibility of a general strike—will be discussed. A strike that can only succeed through the coordinated efforts of the syndicate and its members.

The regime’s media has also entered the battle—naturally, taking the side of the police. A smear campaign and threats have been launched against the syndicate’s leadership and all doctors. The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper dedicated an entire page to “deaths caused by medical negligence,” blaming doctors for everything—accusing them of laziness and incompetence.
We, too, want to talk about “medical negligence.” We, too, want to talk about “deaths.” And we ask Al-Ahram: Who is truly responsible?!
The dead lie murdered… and Sisi is the one responsible.

Isn’t Sisi and his military regime responsible for the decline in the number of hospital beds in public hospitals—from 71,000 in 1998 to 41,000 in 2011—leaving only 1.5 beds for every 1,000 citizens?
Isn’t Sisi responsible for the ruins we call public hospitals, which lack the essential equipment, medicine, and resources needed to provide proper healthcare?

Isn’t Sisi and his military regime responsible for privatizing public hospitals and paving the way for investor-run hospitals that treat only the wealthy—army officers, police commanders, judges, business people, and their corrupt beneficiaries?

Isn’t Sisi responsible for neglecting healthcare and public services while pouring billions into arming the Interior Ministry and building more prisons for killing, detention, and torture?

The truth is Sisi only cares about ministries that kill Egyptians. If you want to know who is responsible for deaths caused by medical neglect, look no further than Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

As for the doctors you falsely accuse, they have fought tirelessly and honorably for the health and lives of Egyptians. They have shouted themselves hoarse, demanding that the health budget be raised to 15% of the total state budget. They have waged heroic strikes in defense of our right to healthcare.

But as for you and Sisi, you want nothing for us but death—whether by hunger or disease. And if we dare fight back, you kill us.

The Revolutionary Socialists affirm their full support for the doctors’ movement until all their rightful demands are met—first and foremost, the prosecution of the police officers involved in the attack and an end to all forms of aggression against medical workers in hospitals.

The strike is our weapon… against the regime that slaughters us!